Sunflower in the City
by I lOvE FrEd WeAsLeY
Summary: Penny's happy life with her grandfather ends when he dies and she moves to an isolated town. It seems like there's nothing for her in this town but people with broken lives. But slowly she learns her life isn't over. It's just beginning.
1. Prologue1: When the sun shines

**A/N: No one in this story is actually an animal, but the personalities, most names, roles, setting and basically everything is the same, they are just all people. Review! (Please??)**   
Prologue Part 1: When the Sun Shines 

The grass was soft. That's something I remember well on that day. It was a Sunday. I lay there in that soft, green, spring grass, vibrant and full of life. The trees had buds on them like little green promises of Summer. Green is my favorite color, and it always has been. Green is the color of life.

Puffy white clouds floated lazily in a blue pool of sky above my head. I watched those clouds, not thinking of anything, just soaking in the warm spring sunshine.

My life was so happy then. The thought that it would ever change never crossed my mind. We lived in a yellow house with dark green shutters and a white picket fence. There were always sunflowers in the garden, big, yellow sunflowers. I remember thinking that if sunshine were turned into a house, our little cottage with the warm yellow paint and sunflowers would be it.

"Penny," Grandpa's voice called to me, gravelly and deep, but loving. I stretched and ran inside. I had never been vain, or even cared about my appearance at all. In fact, as I glanced at the hall mirror, I realized I had grass woven into my long red hair. My grandpa always said I had my mother's eyes, big and even sparkling when they caught the right light. But, of course, I wouldn't know. My father had gone to war and gotten killed, ironically, right on the day I was born. Because of that, I've always hated my birthday. My beautiful mother, Evelyn, died of grief when I was two. I never knew her as my grandfather remembered her, full of life and always laughing. All I remember is being lead to her open casket, my little hand clutched in my grandpa's big warm one, and how beautiful she looked, her brown hair cascading around her pale face.

"What's the matter, Carrots?" My Grandpa asked me, bringing me back from those painful memories. He always called me Carrots, teasing me about my flaming red hair.

"Nothing Grandpa. You look tired, let's sit down on the couch," I lead him across the gleaming, sun-drenched wood floors to the living room with the faded white couch. As he sat down I realized that he was looking… old. Of course, he was my grandpa. He was always old. But it put me off to realize just how old he was getting. I found myself unexpectedly throwing my arms around his neck. I smelled his smell of salty sunflower seeds and tobacco that he had quit long ago, but still lingered about him. I loved his smell, and it comforted me. I looked up at him and his old gray hat he always wore, the kind the men wore in New York in the 40's, with the little dent in the top. I thought of it as the Grandpa hat.

"Grandpa, I'm worried about you," I said. He just smiled and stood up to make me some tea.


	2. Prologue2: The sun goes down

me some tea.

Prologue Part 2: The Sun Goes Down

The next day it was raining. A cold, gray rain. It was cliché, to have rain on that day when my life was drained of color, just as the landscape outside my window. But I am telling the story as it happened, and it was raining on the day I found my grandpa in his room, in the tall bed that he had to lift me up into when I was little. He was lying there and his face was as gray as his hair, his Grandpa hat hanging on the hook beside his bed, and the cloudy sky without the sun we loved so much. His eyes were closed, and I knew without thinking a thing. The truth hit me like a cold wave.

I didn't know what to do except cry. I never cried. I hardly cried even when I was a baby, but I felt warm, wet tears rolling down my cheeks.


	3. A pocketful of sunflower seeds

Chapter 1: A pocketful of sunflower seeds

"Moving?" I cried loudly. The man behind the desk at this building with the worst name ever just looked at me calmly. I was at the Center for Homeless Orphans. _Homeless Orphans_? Two terrible words that could make anyone feel like a failure in life, lumped together and made to look professional by sticking the word Center in front.

"Yes, you will be relocated to a town East of here, called Spince. It is perfect for you. It is one of those "retreat" towns I'm sure you have heard of. No roads and only a couple of stores. Very, very small but populated with completely normal people, I assure you. It has tall cliffs on three sides and the ocean at the bottom of town. So," he chuckled in a way I thought was almost maniacal, "The only way out is to swim or talk to the gate keepers."

"Will I get my own house?" I asked.

"Unfortunately not, but there is some great news! You will have three roommates. Twin girls and a younger boy. Quite odd names, actually. Georgia, Gloria and Roscoe!" he beamed at me as if the thought of living with three cracked up orphans in a town that was basically a jail should make me happy.

So that's how I ended up three months later, standing just inside the town gates, my Grandpa hat on my hat (I didn't even take it off to sleep), ten sunflower seeds in my pocket, and a suitcase in my hand. I stood on the stone platform, wondering where to go and surveying the scene in front of me. I had to admit it was kind of pretty. All right, it was downright beautiful. As soon as the stones stopped, dark green grass covered almost completely in sun-dappled shade from what seemed like millions of trees that lined a simple dirt path, winding though the shade. I could faintly hear rushing water off to the West, so I headed that way on an impulse. The first thing I came to was a garden, fully in bloom with flowers of every color of the rainbow. My spirits soared… and then my heart sunk again as I realized that not a single sunflower rose from the dirt.

I walked through the garden, avoiding stepping on the flowers and found myself on another platform of gray stones, laid out in an oval before a pretty white house with a light blue roof. Maybe 50 feet away, past yet another patch of shady trees and a couple of flowers, a sparkling waterfall flowed into a pool that formed a river, winding down to parts of the town I hadn't explored yet. I turned to the house again and knocked nervously. A blond girl came to the door. I felt myself gasp quietly when I saw her. She was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen. She had light brown, almond-shaped eyes, and hair the color of pale gold that was cut just above her shoulders. She had a white flower tucked in her hair, was wearing a dress that had a flowing white skirt and a glittering golden top section, and was smiling a serene smile.

"Hi, are you Penny?" She asked quietly. I cleared my throat nervously.

"Uh… yeah- yeah I am," I said. Brilliant.

"I'm Gloria," she turned around and called, "Georgia! Roscoe!" I heard the loud hammering of heavy footsteps on wooden stairs and soon two faces appeared on either side of Gloria's.

The girl who I assumed was Georgia had her red hair cut in a no-fuss, short, pixie-like haircut. I was interested immediately because we both had the "blessing" (or curse) of bright red hair. Georgia didn't have her sister's brilliance, but I could see she was friendly and outgoing, whereas Gloria seemed timid.

"I'm Georgia, and the drop-dead gorgeous garden you see outside is all mine. It's all I can do to get Roscoe to stop running through them, and Gloria here has hardly gone outside since I planted them, so maybe you'll appreciate my passion more then my dear siblings," she said, all in one breath. She struck me right away as the kind of person who was excited about life and wasn't about to let it pass her by. Then I turned to the younger boy.

He had dark brown, almost black, hair that spiked into a cute little Mohawk at the top of his head. He had dark eyes and an innocent face.

"I'm Roscoe! My sisters are boring and you have pretty hair!" He said loudly. Then his goofy smile turned into a more intelligent one.

"Just kidding. My sisters here expect me to act like the adorable little brother 24-7 and it gets tiring, let me tell you. So I'm not as dumb as I look," he said, quite seriously. Then he pushed past us and ran down the path with no shoes on, a little bundle of energy. My head was spinning. How could one family be so different from each other?

"I'll give you a tour of the house, and then town," Georgia offered. I nodded silently and followed her. The main hall, just inside the door, had shining antique-looking wood floors and subtle, flowered wallpaper. A huge staircase led up to an indoor balcony overlooking the hall and four doors stood behind the railing on the balcony. We walked through a wide doorway at the back of the lower level of the hall to a sunny kitchen.

"This is where Gloria makes meals. Can you cook?" Georgia asked hopefully. I shook my head, wishing I could make myself talk.

Then she led me back into the hall and through a doorway to the left of the front door, into a living room. The room had a classic sort of décor, which matched the rest of the lower level as far as I could tell. A striped orange antique couch in front of a wooden table with a little lace covering, a bookcase, a goldfish in a bowl, and a grand piano. I gasped when I saw the piano. Georgia followed my gaze.

"Do you play?" she asked. I nodded. Then I thought, this muteness has got to stop. So I cleared my throat and said loudly and clearly,

"Yes."

Georgia smiled and we walked out of the room and up the staircase. She opened the door that was farthest to the left and walked in.

"This is my fabulous room," she announced. There were pots of flowers everywhere and a couple of fish tanks sat on tables. The furniture was dark colored wood and her bedspread was light blue and flowered.

Then we went to Gloria's room. It wasn't what I had expected. The shades were closed and dirty clothes lay everywhere. A couple books were scattered on her plain red bedspread.

"Since we got here, Gloria has come outside a grand total of four times. We've been here for six years," Georgia's voice was full of pain.

"Why?" I asked carefully.

"She's stuck in the past and the present is passing her by," she replied philosophically.

Then we went to Roscoe's room, which was exactly what I expected. Toys lay on the playroom-style floor and bright colors dominated his walls.

Then we walked into the room furthest to the right.

"Green!" I said, louder then I meant to. The walls were green wallpaper and the wood floors were covered with a big green rug. There were pots of yellow flowers (still not sunflowers) and all the furniture was light brown wood. It was beautiful.

"Do you like it? I didn't know if it was too much green or what…" Georgia asked.

"I…" I was just about to say that it was beautiful when my mind flashed to my old room. My REAL room. With my old, patched quilt and black and white family pictures that were stuffed in my suitcase now. I looked around once again and found myself thinking that this wasn't my room. This couldn't compare.

"It's nice," I finally finished quietly. The whole thing suddenly looked fake and cheesy compared to my room in my old house. Georgia looked somewhat downhearted.

"Well, supper is at seven, so I'll let you get settled," she said, smiling in a way that told me she was still sad. I wondered if she had put a lot of effort into this room.

When the door shut behind her, I collapsed on my bed. Maybe it wasn't _that_ bad. The green _was_ sort of nice…

I took a deep breath to slow down the stream of thoughts that filled my head. I unlatched my suitcase and took out my old quilt and the pictures. I unfolded the quilt and spread it over my bed and hung up the pictures. The cheap tape I used would ruin the pretty wallpaper, but at that moment I didn't even care. I sat in a comfortable chair by the window and stared at the sky.

"Grandpa? Are you there? Well I guess it's kind of dumb to sit here talking to the sky, but… I miss you! Can you still see me here, in this new town?" I asked the air, the sky, the trees, the clouds… my grandpa. Everyone always talked about heaven, but I couldn't picture it at all.

"I love you," I whispered. The only answer I got was the sound of a cold, rainy wind blowing across the trees.


	4. Petals in the Wind

Chapter 2: 

The next morning I woke up quite disoriented. I had to close my eyes for a second and let the remembering wash over me like a wave.

It was very early, just at the crack of dawn actually, and only the first pale, springtime light fluttered into the room. I stretched and got out of bed, got dressed in a drab gray sweater. Gray seemed such an appropriate mourning color that it was all I wore. Gray like a stormy sky.

I quickly finger-combed my hair. The air felt odd on my head, with the absence of the Grandpa hat as I removed it. I quickly placed it back on my head and crept out the door. Just as I suspected, no one was up yet. It felt odd to stay in this house, with the morning quiet making even my breath sound loud, so I walked out the front door.

A light mist was rolling across the dew-stained grass and mourning doves called. The waterfall was still pouring water off the cliffs and the first bees were buzzing quietly in Georgia's garden. I walked down the dirt path, through the thick forest of trees. I eventually got bored of looking at the trees as I passed, so I walked off of the path and began to walk along the riverbank. I could see faint shadows of fish swimming in the cool blue water. Suddenly the line of trees came to an abrupt stop and short, trimmed grass spread out before me. A big square of stones with a neat little shop, a beautiful marble museum, and what I assumed was the town hall stood around it like walls. I guessed that this was the town square.

Nothing was open yet, so I decided to come back later in the day. I returned to the river and saw the landscape dotted with small houses now and then. Then the land slanted down and I came to the beach. It was beautiful. Stormy gray waves struck the shore, and the cliffs on both sides of me stopped sharply. I felt much more free here then anywhere else in town. Everywhere else I was surrounded by cliffs and walls, holding me in. Here, standing on the jagged, rocky shore at dawn with the salty sea wind whipping through my hair, I felt like I could fly. The ocean spread out before me, forever.

"Forever!" I yelled as loudly as I could into the roaring wind, knowing that only someone right by me on the beach would be able to hear me over the wind.

"Forever!"

The voice came out of nowhere. The voice was singing. My heart skipped a beat.

"Forever… Forever! The girl stands on the shore, screaming forever!" A dark figure emerged from the mist.

"Who's that?" I yelled.

"Whooooo are we? Who who, who who?" The shadowy figure sang in a way that was half creepy, half comical. He sang in a voice like a gust of wind, confident and flowing. Before I knew it, he stood right in front of me, looking me squarely in the eye.

He was taller then me and held a beat-up guitar case with patches and doodles covering almost every inch of the cheap black leather. He had shaggy, chocolate brown hair that fell over his eyes. His face was pale with brown freckles sprinkled across the bridge of his nose, and striking dark green eyes stared back at me from under dark eyebrows.

"I am Ben Kyle Kirk Slider," he said calmly, holding out his hand. A loud burst of laughter leapt from me and I stifled it with my hand.

"Do you think my name is funny?" he asked, not threateningly.

"Yes I do," I replied matter-of-factly, "and I am Penny Bluebell Sprout."

He seemed to consider me for a moment, to see if I was teasing him. I had no patience for this odd boy with the odd name, so I whipped around and walked up the hill with as much dignity as I could. He followed me, almost running to keep up with my pace.

"You can call me KK Slider," he offered, as if that was a huge privilege.

"Well if I ever happen to see you again, I'll call you Ben, because that name, unlike KK Slider, doesn't sound like an alcoholic drink," I snapped. He stopped for a moment, as if dazed and then ran to catch up with me again.

"What's wrong with you, Sprout?" he asked.

"Penny. I'm Penny and I'm annoyed and you are annoying me," I replied. We were almost at the house. Of course the house had to be the absolute farthest away from the beach that it could…

"I don't even live here. I'm a traveling musician," he said boldly, in a slightly braggy voice.

"I'm so happy for you. This is my house, so goodbye Ben," I said stiffly.

"See ya around, Sprout," he grinned. I rolled my eyes and slammed the door in his face.


	5. Unexpected bloom

Chapter 3: A flower blooming

That day after lunch Georgia had gone to the store and Roscoe was off somewhere where no one could find him unless he wanted to be found, so I decided to try to get Gloria to show me around town. I recalled what Georgia had said about Gloria not coming outside, but I thought she was probably exaggerating.

"Hey Gloria! Wanna… go somewhere?" I asked hopefully. She looked up slowly, blinking her big, beautiful eyes.

"No," she replied. Ok…

"Come on. It's nice out. Let's go to the beach!" I said, trying to keep the smile on my face. She stared at me and didn't break eye contact. Then she simply nodded.

"Okay, come on!" I smiled, grabbing her by the hand and pulling her out the door. The sun was glowing brightly and I loved the feeling as it warms my face instantly. I turned to Gloria. She was blinking furiously and gazing off into the distance.

"Let's go to the beach," I offered quietly.

"Beach…" She nodded slowly. Then she began walking down the path as if in a trance. I raised an eyebrow and hurried after her.

"Isn't it beautiful?" I said happily. She turned to meet my eyes. There were tears glistening in hers.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Haven't… haven't been outside since…" she trailed off.

"Your parents died?" I finished carefully. She nodded. By this time the shady path had stopped and I was facing the wide expanse of windy water and air for the second time that day.

"What do you want to do?" I asked. Her eyes lit up. She sprinted toward the water.

"Gloria! What are you-" I yelled, but stopped and felt my face spread into a smile as I saw her plunge into the water with her dress on. I ran after her, laughing.

I ran so fast that my body got ahead of my feet and I was a millisecond away from tripping flat on my face when the rocky shore dropped off and I was flying through the air for a wonderful three seconds. Then the cold water relieved my body from the heat of the sun and It was all around me. The sand under my feet was soft on my feet and this was, by far, the happiest I had been for nearly half a year.

"Gloria!" I yelled.

"Over here!" she called back from deeper out in the sparkling water. I swam to her.

"This is crazy! What are you thinking?" I asked between gasps of laughter.

"I'm thinking…" she dove under the water and grabbed my feet. I screamed and splashed her in the face when she emerged above the surface.

That was an amazing afternoon. We swam all afternoon in the sun. Gloria came outside and did something spontaneous and I realized there is happiness beyond the walls of my little yellow house back in my old town.

The stars were just starting to sparkle and the last light faded on the horizon when I realized I was shivering.

"It's freezing!" I called to her. She sighed and we walked reluctantly out of the freezing dark water.

"Its COLD!" I screamed. Out soaking wet clothes clung to our bodies as we ran, giggling, home along the path. My feet pounded on the dirt and the wind rushed around me. I was happy when I saw the house up ahead, warm yellow light glowing in the windows.

When we walked inside a single look between us clarified that we didn't want to go into the kitchen to face Georgia and Roscoe. Besides, we were dripping all over the wood floors. So we snuck quietly up the stairs and into my room. I handed her a sweater and some jeans. She looked at me questioningly.

"Oh please. You'll get hypothermia if you go change into those white and gold summer dresses you wear," I said. She seemed to accept this, so we both changed into warm clothes and sat cross-legged on the bed in the warm glow of my lamp.

"So why haven't you come outside since your parents died?" I asked comfortably.

"My dad and I used to swim all the time. Once me, my mom, and my dad were swimming and I turned around to watch the seagulls. When I turned back around they were gone. Both of them drowned when the ground under water dropped off unexpectedly. Since then I've been afraid to go outside. Today when I saw the water, all that fear melted away and I just needed to feel the ocean around me again."

I smiled then, and an understanding passed between us in that look. We weren't going to be alone anymore.


End file.
